Category: Notebooking

This is a post I made in our notebooking group regarding the topic of  "Narrations".

We do narrations for just about every read aloud and the kids do occasional narrations for me from their independent reading.  I am able to group my 4 middle children quite a bit for the read alouds.  As a matter of fact, right now, they do the following subjects together:  Bible, History, & Science.  For each of these, there is at least one read aloud (usu more) and one or more independent books they are reading at their own level.

BIBLE

For Bible, we use the VOS story Bible as a family.  First, I assign the actual Bible passages for them to read during their quiet times from their own Bibles (& I do this as well).  They have a quiet time journal they keep where they keep track of prayer requests and notes about what they feel the Lord is teaching them at the time.  I assign their readings for 2-3 days and they choose what to read for the remaining days.  See this blog for more info on the kids’ quiet times.  Then we come together for the reading from the story Bible.  They tag-team narrate, orally, after each small section of reading.  (Narration is simply the telling-back of what was just read.)  If the reading was particularly full of lots of details, we may jot some key words on the white board for a very informal outline of what was read.  I esp like to write any names & dates we come across so that they’ll be more inclined to use them.  Then after we’ve covered the reading for the day, they do a written narration for their notebooking pages.  My 3 older ones in this group (ages 9-12) write their own narrations without much aid from me.  The youngest, 8yos, has throughout this year been becoming more independent with writing his own as well.  On occasion, I will still write for him after he has begun on his own with a few sentences.   This whole process takes up to an hour including our quiet times, memorization practice, read aloud, and written narration.  I keep our read aloud short, perhaps 2 pages or so.  We follow this process for about 3 days for a particular story continuing the written narration from where we last left off.  Then we spend the next 2-3 days filling in our notebooking pages with drawings, maps, timeline figures, etc.  During those days, the kids choose their own Bible readings for quiet times and for read aloud, I’ll read from a book like Missionary Stories with the Millers or devotional book while they finish their notebooking pages.

HISTORY

For History, we usu have one or two main read alouds we do as a family & at least one literature book for each child.  We do the same process as above – orally narrating after small sections of reading, but we do not always write the same day that we read.  If possible we do, but it’s not always the case.  With the Bible, you are usually following one main story line, whereas with History you are possibly covering several story lines, several (to many) people, and events.  It may take several days before we finish a whole concept.  Also, with the Bible, I’m more concerned about getting as much of each story into the children’s hearts and mind.  In History, I’m more concerned that they are getting the bigger picture.  If the kids do not do a written narration on a day of reading, I make sure to write down a key word outline from their oral narrations to keep on the white board until their day of writing.  Then after 2-3 days of reading, I usu let the kids pick a person, event, place, or major theme (or combination of these) for them to focus on in their notebooking pages and we set down to writing the narrations and filling up our notebooking pages with all of the other elements.  So we do 2-3 days of mostly reading and then about 3 days of notebooking.  Each of these days, the kids will be reading their own literature books independently and doing occasional oral narrations for me from them (just to make sure they are comprehending what they are reading).  Typically, we do not notebook from their independent literature books unless they are inclined to do so.

SCIENCE

For now, my younger ones do most of their science work on their own during their free afternoons – truly!  They are so naturally drawn to God’s creation and will sit down with books, experiments, bugs, reptiles (& other creatures) and just study to satisfy their hunger for knowledge.  A couple of weeks ago, one of our jars was filled with a worm “farm”, another with an ant farm, and one with a millipede (mistakenly taken for a caterpillar by dd who was quite disappointed that it was going to become a butterfly!).  This week has been great for nature study, too.  We found a 3-toed box turtle, baby robins, mating toads, & tadpoles.  We haven’t had time to get it all into our notebooks yet!  You can see pictures here.

I do have several science books and curriculum guides that we use as well as many field guides and “living” nature books.  Usually after about a week’s study in history, we’ll take 3-4 days to study something specific in science.  I love the combination of books/curriculums I have (106 Days of Creation/Considering God’s Creation/Elementary Apologia Series).  We notebook whatever we are studying in a variety of ways.  We’ll do biography pages (short written narrations based on snippets we read from a book or encyclopedia), experiment pages, narration pages on specific topics covered.  We also try to go out once a week to find something in nature to do a page about.  This week has brought us LOTS to notebook.  We’ll do more nature study throughout the summer as well and back off on some of our history study.  This works well because in the winter months it can be a bit difficult to study nature.  So we focus more heavily on the history during those months.

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 Well, I hope that was beneficial to someone! ;)  Let me know if you have any questions.  .  Narrations are a top priority for me.  If we do not have time for anything else, we make sure to do at least oral narrations from our main studies.  I cannot tell you how amazing this skill is.  I’m convinced that it truly prepares the kids to become greater writers.  After much practice, the words just flow for my kids.  With a little formal training to help “dress up” their writing and to structure it properly, they’ll be great writers!  I get pumped up thinking about how God will use my children in their future with these skills they are developing.  I know it is from practiced narrations that my children are able to sit through a sermon on Sundays and come away knowing more & remembering more than most adults.  Even though they sit and color for most of the sermon, their ears have truly been listening.  It’s awesome!

 One last note, I’m very fortunate to be able to group my middle four children for the above three subjects.  If at all possible, find a way to combine your children for these main subjects.  Not only is it easier on you, but it makes the learning that much more meaningful for them because of the discussions you will be able to have as a group, as a family.  I have two younger daughters who will be joining their older sibling more and more in the next couple of years.  It will be interesting to see how I incorporate them into our studies.  My two older daughters will become more independent I think, so I’ll probably group my younger 4 at that time.  We’ll see…always something new to learn!

To see my favorite homeschooling resources, go to this link.